DOCSLIB.ORG

Sangha Lodge, 2018

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sangha Lodge, 2018 Central African Republic – April 2018. Trip report by Charles Foley. What can you say about Dzanga Bai. Personally I think it's the ‘Serengeti of the forest’, as surely no other forest environment anywhere on the planet offers the same possibility of seeing large herds of stunning forest animals all in one place. Forest Elephants, Forest Buffalo, Giant Forest Hog, Red River Gog, and, of course the marvellous Bongo, can all be seen here. And I can’t think of any other site in Africa where one can watch such large numbers (sometimes over 100) of Forest Elephants drinking, interacting and socializing in one area. It's a place that any nature lover and certainly all mammal watchers need to have on their ‘must visit’ list. My WCS colleague, Andrea Turkalo, had been studying the elephants in the Bai for close to 20 years and I figured that one day I’d make it out there to visit her on a work trip. However, we always end up meeting in boring places like NY or Nairobi instead, and last year she moved back to the US, putting the kibosh on the visit idea. When some friends in Tanzania mooted the idea of visiting, I decided the time was right and one had to seize the day. Bear in mind that the trip is eye-wateringly expensive; it’s very far from anywhere and one has to pay for a charter flight to get there (the lodge has stopped taking drive-in guests, as any problems encountered on the roads ended up in their lap). But I convinced myself that it would be the perfect place for me to turn 50, and sending the kids to college is probably an over-rated idea anyway… I went with five other close friends who I’d known for many years and who all work in the tourism industry. Ethan Kinsey, who leads safaris mostly in Tanzania and the Virungas, did most of the leg-work in liaising with the lodge and organising our visas. [Speaking of which, the Virungas offers far cheaper Mountain Gorilla watching than Uganda and Rwanda, and takes kids as young as 12, unlike most other places where you have to wait until they’re 16. We’ll probably do that over a long weekend next year when our youngest turns 12. The Park is currently closed because of kidnappings of tourists, but hopefully it opens up again soon.] The Central African Republic has had its fair share of instability, with large areas currently controlled by rebels, and these days it is seemingly held together by UN peacekeepers. Almost all of the planes at Bangui airport were UN aircraft, except for a few private charter aircraft. The UN troops and one of the main rebel groups started shooting at each other in Bangui a few days before we arrived, but, as is often the case with these types of incidences, they sound a lot worse in the news than they actually are on the ground and we experienced no problems during our time there. However, there is no telling how long the status quo will last, so I suggest you prioritise a trip soon if you want to visit. I believe that previously people flying into CAR to stay at Sangha Lodge had to spend a night in Bangui, as the Air France flight arrived too late for the charter to make it safely to the lodge. However, Kenya Airways now flies from Nairobi (at some expense mind you), and the arrival and departure times mean you just need an hour or so at the airport. One of Rods fixers will meet you at the airport and guide you through the process. Oh I do love myself a good fixer! Its great to see them nudging, cajoling, facilitating, threatening and shouting their way through the airport, changing their demeanour according to the status of the person they’re dealing with. This chap was great, and had ample opportunity to demonstrate his skill set. From the moment you go through arrivals till the time you get on your plane you pass through no fewer than 14 different desks, and your boarding pass, itinerary and passport end up covered in some wonderfully printed stamps. My favourite stop was having to wait for a mini-bus to drive us the 25 yards from the terminal to the plane. An important point for those of us living in Africa, or places where CAR embassies are thin on the ground, is that the lodge can organise your visa for you. US citizens don’t need them, but as a Brit I did, and our only other option was dealing with the nightmare that is the French Embassy in Dar. Just make sure you bring a passport photo with you as you’ll need one to attach to your application. A South African couple, Rod and Tamar Cassidy, arrived in CAR a decade ago on a birding trip (they are top notch birders), and decided to stay and set up a lodge. And thank goodness they did, because the only other real option is a government run lodge which is right next to the local village, meaning you’d almost certainly develop an intimate knowledge of the current Congo dance tune favourites emanating from the local discos if you stay there. I can’t even begin to imagine the hassles one has to deal with running a lodge in a remote part of CAR, but Rod and Tamar seem to take it all in their stride and are there to stay. They have acquired a fairly large concession area, with a number of bais that they are intending to develop, but at the moment most of the activities concentrate within the nearby National Park (Bai visits and gorilla trekking) and on a series of trails they have opened up around or close to their lodge. The highlight of my trip, and probably everyone else’s too, are the visits to Dzanga Bai. The Bai is in the Park, and to get there you drive for about an hour, then walk for 40 minutes. As you approach the Bai you start hearing elephant sounds, and then you walk out of the forest to the research platform and the Bai opens up before you. We had specifically chosen to come in April because that is apparently that is the best month to see Bongo, and we weren’t disappointed. The very first animals I saw in the Bai, as I started to climb up the platform, were two male Bongos chasing each other. They were part of a herd of 31 Bongo that spent the whole day in the Bai – or at least the time we were there, from morning to mid-afternoon. Rod says that Bongo are sometimes seen in March and May, but for some reason April is the preferred month for them to visit the Bai. People were seeing them approximately once every three days in the Bai in April, and we only saw them on our first day there. I had never seen Forest elephants before so this was a key target species for me on this trip. I wasn’t disappointed. There were mothers with calves, young bulls, old bulls, and even a mother with a calf a few hours old. The elephants spend a lot of time extracting minerals from the deep pools in the Bai. The adults extend their trunks as deep as they can into a pool, often kneeling and pushing their heads into the water, sometimes right up to their ears. This way they can probably reach 8 foot or deeper into the hole. They then blow air out of their trunks, which presumably helped release the minerals from the mud at the bottom of the pool, which they then carefully suck up in their trunks and deposit in their mouths. At one point there were over 100 elephants in the Bai, drinking, splashing mud and interacting. However, apparently these high numbers are unusual, and probably a symptom of poaching pressure in other parts of the ecosystem. Certainly we saw at least one family group with a demographic structure that clearly indicated the recent loss of an adult female. The Sitatunga have disappeared from the Bai this year, but, in addition to the elephants, there was a small group of Forest Buffalo using the Bai pretty much the whole time, and we also saw two Giant Forest Hogs and 18 Red River Hogs, although the latter only at night. As others have mentioned, the sweat bees can be pretty annoying, so be sure to take a mosquito head-net with you if you’re susceptible to them. Most of our party put on the nets after a while, although two didn’t seem bothered by them. We arranged through the lodge to spend a night at the Bai, which I would highly recommend. Apparently permission is at the discretion of the Park, but we were granted this seemingly without any hassle. We were walked to the platform at about 4 pm and left there with food, mosquito nets and some cushions. There is a video camera in one corner to keep an eye on you, but I don’t know if it was working or not. You are not allowed to spotlight from the platform as it scares the hell out of the elephants, so if you want to make best use of a Bai night, I suggest you try to time your visit to coincide with a full or fullish moon.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Late Quaternary Extinction of Ungulates in Sub-Saharan Africa: a Reductionist's Approach
    Late Quaternary Extinction of Ungulates in Sub-Saharan Africa: a Reductionist's Approach Joris Peters Ins/itu/ für Palaeoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin, Universität München. Feldmochinger Strasse 7, D-80992 München, Germany AchilIes Gautier Laboratorium VDor Pa/eonlo/agie, Seclie Kwartairpaleo1ltologie en Archeozoölogie, Universiteit Gent, Krijgs/aon 2811S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium James S. Brink National Museum, P. 0. Box 266. Bloemfontein 9300. Republic of South Africa Wim Haenen Instituut voor Gezandheidsecologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Capucijnenvoer 35, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium (Received 24 January 1992, revised manuscrip/ accepted 6 November 1992) Comparative osteomorphology and sta ti st ical analysis cf postcranial limb bone measurements cf modern African wildebeest (Collnochaetes), eland (Taura/ragus) and Africa n buffala (Sy" cer"s) have heen applied to reassess the systematic affiliations between these bovids and related extinct Pleistocene forms. The fossil sam pies come from the sites of Elandsfontein (Cape Province) .nd Flarisb.d (Orange Free State) in South Afrie • . On the basis of differenees in skull morphology and size of the appendicular skeleton between fossil and modern blaek wildebeest (ConlJochaeus gnou). the subspecies name anliquus, proposed earlier to designate the Pleistoeene form, ean be retained. The same taxonomie level is accepted for the large Pleistocene e1and, whieh could be named Taurolragus oryx antiquus. The long horned or giant buffa1o, Pelorovis antiquus, can be inc1uded in the polymorphous Syncerus caffer stock and could therefore be called Syncerus caffer antiquus. The ecology of Pleistocene and modern Connochaetes, Taurolragus and Syncerus is discussed. A relationship between herbivore body size and c1imate, as Bergmann's Rule predicts, could not be demonstrated.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Uses of the African Buffalo Syncerus Caffer (Sparrman, 1779) by the Populations Living Around the Comoé National Park (North-East Ivory Coast)
    Atta et al., 2021 Journal of Animal & Plant Sciences (J.Anim.Plant Sci. ISSN 2071-7024) Vol.47 (2): 8484-8496 https://doi.org/10.35759/JAnmPlSci.v47-2.6 Some uses of the African buffalo Syncerus caffer (sparrman, 1779) by the populations living around the Comoé National Park (North-East Ivory Coast) ATTA Assemien Cyrille-Joseph 1, SOULEMANE Ouattara 1, KADJO Blaise 1, KOUADIO Yao Roger 2 1 Laboratory of Natural Environment and Biodiversity Conservation, UFR Biosciences, Félix Houphouët-Boigny University, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire 2 Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves, Côte d’Ivoire, 06 BP 426 Abidjan 06 Correspondance : [email protected] / [email protected] ; Tel : +225 0757311360 Key words: Ethnozoology, Use form, Buffalo, Comoé National Park, Ivory Coast Publication date 28/02/2021, http://m.elewa.org/Journals/about-japs/ 1 ABSTRACT The Comoé National Park (CNP) in Ivory Coast is home to significant biological diversity and is one of the priority areas of the West African protected areas network. It is subject to many anthropic pressures, the most intense in its history have been those of the periods of socio-political crisis that Ivory Coast has experienced. The anthropic pressures which weigh on this park are most often practiced by the riparian populations for their survival. The objective of this study is to list the buffalo's organs and their usual mode of use in order to identify the types of pressure that weigh on the species. It is mainly carried out in twelve villages on the periphery of the Comoé National Park: Bania, Kokpingé, Sanguinari, Mango, Lambira, Kalabo, Banvayo, Kakpin, Amaradougou, Gorowi, Tehini and Saye.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Antelope & Buffalo
    WildlifeCampus – The Behaviour Guide to African Herbivores 1 Module # 2 – Component # 2 Introduction to Antelope & Buffalo Tribe African African Genera Species Cephalophini: duikers 2 16 Neotragini: pygmy antelopes (dik-dik, suni, royal 6 13 antelope, klipspringer, oribi) Antilopini: gazelles, springbok, gerenuk 4 12 Reduncini: reedbuck, kob, waterbuck, lechwe 2 8 Peleini: Vaal rhebok 1 1 Hippotragini: horse antelopes (roan, sable, oryx, 3 5 addax) Alcelaphini: hartebeest, hirola, topi, biesbok, 3 7 wildebeest Aepycerotini: impala 1 1 Tragelaphini: spiral-horned antelopes (bushbuck, 1 9 sitatunga, nyalu, kudu, bongo, eland) Bovini: buffalo, cattle 1 1 Caprini: ibex, Barbary sheep 2 2 Total 26 75 FAMILY TRAITS Horns borne by males of all species and by females in 43 of the 75 African species. Size range: from 1.5 kg and 20 cm high (royal antelope) to 950 kg and 178 cm (eland); maximum weight in family, 1200 kg (Asian water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis); maximum height: 200 cm (gaur, Bos gaurus). Teeth: 30 or 32 total (see Component # 1 of this Module - Introduction to Ruminants). Coloration: from off-white (Arabian oryx) to black (buffalo, black wildebeest) but mainly shades of brown; cryptic and disruptive in solitary species to revealing with bold, distinctive markings in sociable plains species. Eyes: laterally placed with horizontally elongated pupils (providing good rear view). Introduction to Antelope and Buffalo © WildlifeCampus WildlifeCampus – The Behaviour Guide to African Herbivores 2 Scent glands: developed (at least in males) in most species, diffuse or absent in a few (kob, waterbuck, bovines). Mammae: 1 or 2 pairs. Horns. True horns consist of an outer sheath composed mainly of keratin over a bony core of the same shape which grows from the frontal bones.
    [Show full text]
  • Theileria Spp. in Free Ranging Giraffes (Giraffa Camelopardalis) in Zambia
    Central Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research Bringing Excellence in Open Access Case Report *Corresponding author King Shimumbo Nalubamba, Department of Clinical Studies, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Theileria spp. in Free Zambia, P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia, Tel: 260 211 293 727; Email: Submitted: 28 November 2015 Ranging Giraffes (Giraffa Accepted: 30 December 2015 Published: 31 December 2015 camelopardalis) in Zambia ISSN: 2378-931X Copyright King Shimumbo Nalubamba1*, Squarre David2, Musso © 2015 Nalubamba et al. Munyeme3, Harvey Kamboyi2, Ngonda Saasa3, Ethel Mkandawire3 OPEN ACCESS and Hetron Mweemba Munang’andu4 1 Department of Clinical Studies, University of Zambia, Zambia Keywords 2 Zambia Wildlife Authority, Zambia • Game ranch 3 Department of Disease Control, University of Zambia, Zambia • Giraffe 4 Department of Basic Sciences and Aquatic Medicine, Norwegian University of Life • Giraffa camelopardalis Sciences, Norway • Piroplasms • Theileria Abstract • Ticks • Wildlife Theileria parasites were detected in five apparently healthy free-ranging giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758) captured for translocation on a game ranch located approximately 60 km south west of Lusaka. Giemsa-stained blood smears examined under a light microscope showed characteristic oval and rod shaped intra- erythrocytic piroplasms. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products targeted on the 18S rRNA gene showed characteristic bands of Theileria spp. The average number of infected blood cells per field examined by light microscopy was estimated at 48.6% (n=50, SD±8.2%). The mean white blood cell count (WBC), red blood cell count (RBC), haemaglobin and packed cell volume (PCV)(%) for the five giraffes were estimated at 8.0 x 103/µl, 7.9 x 106/µl, 17.8 g/dL and 41.8%, respectively, being within the normal range of hematological values of free-ranging healthy giraffes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Potential Distributions, and Estimated Spatial Requirements And
    The potential distributions, and estimated spatial requirements and population sizes, of the medium to large-sized mammals in the planning domain of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park project A.F. BOSHOFF, G.I.H. KERLEY, R.M. COWLING and S.L. WILSON Boshoff, A.F., G.I.H. Kerley, R.M. Cowling and S.L. Wilson. 2002. The potential distri- butions, and estimated spatial requirements and population sizes, of the medium to large-sized mammals in the planning domain of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park project. Koedoe 45(2): 85–116. Pretoria. ISSN 0075-6458. The Greater Addo Elephant National Park project (GAENP) involves the establishment of a mega biodiversity reserve in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Conservation planning in the GAENP planning domain requires systematic information on the potential distri- butions and estimated spatial requirements, and population sizes of the medium to large- sized mammals. The potential distribution of each species is based on a combination of literature survey, a review of their ecological requirements, and consultation with con- servation scientists and managers. Spatial requirements were estimated within 21 Mam- mal Habitat Classes derived from 43 Land Classes delineated by expert-based vegeta- tion and river mapping procedures. These estimates were derived from spreadsheet models based on forage availability estimates and the metabolic requirements of the respective mammal species, and that incorporate modifications of the agriculture-based Large Stock Unit approach. The potential population size of each species was calculat- ed by multiplying its density estimate with the area of suitable habitat. Population sizes were calculated for pristine, or near pristine, habitats alone, and then for these habitats together with potentially restorable habitats for two park planning domain scenarios.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate-Change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies for Africa's
    CLIMATE-CHANGE VULNERABILITIES AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES FOR AFRICA’S CHARISMATIC MEGAFAUNA CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS Jonathan Mawdsley Martha Surridge RESEARCH SUPPORT Bilal Ahmad Sandra Grund Barry Pasco Robert Reeve Chris Robertson ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Deb Callahan Matthew Grason Anne Marsh Ralph and Alice Mawdsley Christine Negra Thomas Nichols Conn Nugent Stacia Van Dyne REVIEWERS Matthew Lewis, WWF Shaun Martin, WWF Dennis Ojima, Colorado State University Robin O’Malley, USGS Wildlife and Climate Change Science Center Karen Terwilliger, Terwilliger Consulting, Inc. Cover photo credit: Martha Surridge CITATION OF THIS REPORT The Heinz Center. 2012. Climate-change Vulnerability and Adaptation Strategies for Africa’s Charismatic Megafauna. Washington, DC, 56 pp. Copyright ©2012 by The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment 900 17th St, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: (202) 737-6307 Fax: (202) 737-6410 Website: www.heinzctr.org Email: [email protected] Climate-change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies for Africa’s Charismatic Megafauna TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Methods 6 Results and Discussion 8 Future Directions 10 Species Profiles The Big Five African Elephant 11 African Lion 13 Cape Buffalo 15 Leopard 17 Rhinoceros, Black 19 Rhinoceros, White 21 African Wild Dog 23 Bongo 25 Cheetah 27 Common Eland 29 Gemsbok 31 Giraffe 33 Greater Kudu 35 Hippopotamus 37 Okapi 39 Wildebeest, Black 41 Wildebeest, Blue 43 Zebra, Grevy’s 45 Zebra, Mountain 47 Zebra, Plains 49 Literature Cited 50 Climate-change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies for Africa’s Charismatic Megafauna EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The phrase “African animals” brings to mind elephants, lions and other iconic large mammals often referred to as “charismatic megafauna.” The powerful appeal of these animals is demonstrated in the many African wildlife documentaries on television and enduring public support for zoos and museums featuring African animals.
    [Show full text]
  • The U.K. Hunter Who Has Shot More Wildlife Than the Killer of Cecil the Lion
    CAMPAIGN TO BAN TROPHY HUNTING Special Report The U.K. hunter who has shot more wildlife than the killer of Cecil the Lion SUMMARY The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting is revealing the identity of a British man who has killed wild animals in 5 continents, and is considered to be among the world’s ‘elite’ in the global trophy hunting industry. Malcolm W King has won a staggering 36 top awards with Safari Club International (SCI), and has at least 125 entries in SCI’s Records Book. The combined number of animals required for the awards won by King is 528. Among his awards are prizes for shooting African ‘Big Game’, wild cats, and bears. King has also shot wild sheep, goats, deer and oxen around the world. His exploits have taken him to Asia, Africa and the South Pacific, as well as across Europe. The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting estimates that around 1.7 million animals have been killed by trophy hunters over the past decade, of which over 200,000 were endangered species. Lions are among those species that could be pushed to extinction by trophy hunting. An estimated 10,000 lions have been killed by ‘recreational’ hunters in the last decade. Latest estimates for the African lion population put numbers at around 20,000, with some saying they could be as low as 13,000. Industry groups like Safari Club International promote prizes which actively encourage hunters to kill huge numbers of endangered animals. The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting believes that trophy hunting is an aberration in a civilised society.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Gastrointestinal Parasite Infection in Père David’S Deer
    Temporal and spatial dynamics of gastrointestinal parasite infection in Père David's deer Shanghua Xu1,*, Shumiao Zhang2,*, Xiaolong Hu3, Baofeng Zhang1, Shuang Yang1, Xin Hu4, Shuqiang Liu1, Defu Hu1 and Jiade Bai2 1 School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China 2 Department of Research, Beijing Milu Ecological Research Center, Beijing, China 3 College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China 4 Beijing Key Laboratory of Captive Wildlife Technologies, Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China * These authors contributed equally to this work. ABSTRACT Background. The Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) population was established from only a small number of individuals. Their genetic diversity is therefore relatively low and transmissible (parasitic) diseases affecting them merit further attention. Parasitic infections can affect the health, survival, and population development of the host. However, few reports have been published on the gastrointestinal parasites of Père David's deer. The aims of this study were: (1) to identify the intestinal parasites groups in Père David's deer; (2) to determine their prevalence and burden and clarify the effects of different seasons and regions on various indicators of Père David's deer intestinal parasites; (3) to evaluate the effects of the Père David's deer reproductive period on these parasites; (4) to reveal the regularity of the parasites in space and time. Methods. In total, 1,345 Père David's deer faecal samples from four regions during four seasons were tested using the flotation (saturated sodium nitrate solution) to identify parasites of different genus or group, and the McMaster technique to count the number of eggs or oocysts.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of Disease-Free Buffalo Breeding Projects with Reference to the Different Systems Used in South Africa
    Sustainability 2012, 4, 3124-3140; doi:10.3390/su4113124 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Review An Overview of Disease-Free Buffalo Breeding Projects with Reference to the Different Systems Used in South Africa Liesel Laubscher and Louwrens Hoffman * Department of Animal Science, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa; E-Mail: [email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +27-21-808-4747; Fax: +27-21-8084750. Received: 27 August 2012; in revised form: 30 October 2012 / Accepted: 9 November 2012 / Published: 15 November 2012 Abstract: This paper describes the successful national program initiated by the South African government to produce disease-free African buffalo so as to ensure the sustainability of this species due to threats from diseases. Buffalo are known carriers of foot-and-mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, Corridor disease and brucellosis. A long-term program involving multiphase testing and a breeding scheme for buffalo is described where, after 10 years, a sustainable number of buffalo herds are now available that are free of these four diseases. A large portion of the success was attributable to the use of dairy cows as foster parents with the five-stage quarantine process proving highly effective in maintaining the “disease-free” status of both the calves and the foster cows. The projects proved the successfulness of breeding with African buffalo in a commercial system that was unique to African buffalo and maintained the “wildness” of the animals so that they could effectively be released back into the wild with minimal, if any, behavioral problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Exotic Hoof Stock Anesthesia and Analgesia
    NAVC Conference 2008 ______________________________________________________________________________________________ EXOTIC HOOF STOCK ANESTHESIA AND provide the basis for non-domestic hoof stock ANALGESIA: BEST PRACTICES anesthesia and analgesia today. With these pharmaceuticals, the standard of care in non-domestic anesthesia and analgesia must include William R. Lance, DVM, MS, PhD, Diplomate ACZM rapid non-traumatic induction, adequate muscle Wildlife Pharmaceuticals, Inc. relaxation for manipulation, acceptable levels of Fort Collins, CO cardiovascular and respiratory function, adequate anxiolysis and analgesia, rapid and safe recovery, and Veterinary care of non-domestic hoof stock has proper levels of post procedure analgesia or sedation if become more common practice through the integration required. The veterinarian and staff must have the of veterinary medicine in state and federal natural knowledge, pharmaceuticals and support equipment to resource management programs, zoological collections, achieve a “best practice” outcome. exotic animal ranching expansion, and hobby collections of exotics. Likewise, veterinarians are expected to have CERVIDS the knowledge and capability to safely anesthetize and The family Cervidae is represented as an indigenous handle these animals. group on all major continents except Africa and Anesthesia of exotic hoof stock requires the Australia. The cervids vary greatly in size, environmental knowledge of not only the pharmacology of the drugs adaptations, and response to anesthesia protocols. used but also the variation in dose response among The selection of the protocol to be used in a given families, genera, species, and, in some cases, even sub- species will be dictated by whether rapid induction is species of this group of animals. The second challenge absolutely essential and, if rapid recovery is required, by is matching the pharmaceutical tools available with the the animal’s situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of the Primates, Large Mammals and Birds of the Mathews Range Forest Reserve, Central Kenya
    Assessment of the Primates, Large Mammals and Birds of the Mathews Range Forest Reserve, Central Kenya Yvonne A. de Jong Thomas M. Butynski Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program Report to The Nature Conservancy, Washington D.C. August 2010 Mathews Range Assessment, August 2010 Assessment of the Primates, Large Mammals and Birds of the Mathews Range Forest Reserve, Central Kenya Yvonne A. de Jong Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program P.O. Box 149 10400 Nanyuki, Kenya [email protected] Thomas M. Butynski Zoological Society of London King Khalid Wildlife Research Center P.O. Box 61681 Riyadh 11575, Saudi Arabia [email protected] Report to The Nature Conservancy, Washington D.C. August 2010 Yvonne A. de Jong & Thomas M. Butynski Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program Website: www.wildsolutions.nl Recommended citation: De Jong, Y.A. & Butynski, T.M. 2010. Assessment of the primates, large mammals and birds of the Mathews Range Forest Reserve, central Kenya. Unpublished report to The Nature Conservancy, Washington D.C. Cover photo: Left: Elder Lpaasion Lesipih and scout Sinyah Lesowapir. Upper right: pearl- spotted owlet Glaucidium perlatum. Lower right: bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus. All photographs taken in the Mathews Range by Yvonne A. de Jong and Thomas M. Butynski. 2 Y.A. de Jong & T.M. Butynski CONTENTS Summary 4 Introduction 6 Methods 7 Research Area 8 Results, Conclusions and Discussion 10 I. Primates 10 Small-eared greater galago Otolemur garnettii 12 Somali galago Galago gallarum 14 Mt. Uarges Guereza Colobus guereza percivali 17 De Brazza’s monkey Cercopithecus neglectus 20 Hilgert’s vervet monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus hilgerti 22 Olive baboon Papio anubis 24 Conclusion and Discussion 27 Primate Conservation in the Mathews Range 28 II.
    [Show full text]
  • Pan-African Genetic Structure in the African Buffalo (Syncerus Caffer): Investigating Intraspecific Divergence
    Pan-African Genetic Structure in the African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer): Investigating Intraspecific Divergence Nathalie Smitz1*,Ce´cile Berthouly2, Daniel Corne´lis2, Rasmus Heller3, Pim Van Hooft4, Philippe Chardonnet5, Alexandre Caron2,6,7, Herbert Prins8, Bettine Jansen van Vuuren9, Hans De Iongh10, Johan Michaux1,11 1 Departement of Life Sciences- Conservation Genetics, University of Lie`ge, Lie`ge, Belgium, 2 Centre de Coope´ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le De´veloppement (CIRAD), Campus International de Baillarguet, Montferrier-le-Lez, France, 3 Department of Biology- Bioinformatics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4 Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 5 International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife (IGF), Paris, France, 6 Department Environment and Societies- Centre de Coope´ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le De´veloppement (CIRAD), University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe, 7 Department of Zoology and Entomology- Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, 8 Tropical Nature Conservation and Vertebrate Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 9 Department of Zoology- Centre for Invasion Biology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, 10 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, 11 Centre de Biologie et de Gestion des Populations (CBGP), Campus International de Baillarguet, Montferrier-le-Lez, France Abstract The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) exhibits extreme morphological variability, which has led to controversies about the validity and taxonomic status of the various recognized subspecies. The present study aims to clarify these by inferring the pan-African spatial distribution of genetic diversity, using a comprehensive set of mitochondrial D-loop sequences from across the entire range of the species.
    [Show full text]